Tuesday, February 14, 2006

Cheney jokes ring hollow when truth leaks out

Apparently the spin on this "incident of inaccurate marksmanship" isn't going to be as easy to control as the Veep thought. I was forced to post on this at the Detroit News blog in response to the other bloggers but I'm not going to cross post because I'm home for a week and there's a lot to catch up on. The links are over there, including some to the best jokes and a funny game that seemed more appropriate when we all thought this was the minor mishap Cheney said it was. Like every other disaster in this administration however, the veneer of plausible deniability chips off rather easily to reveal an ugly truth underneath.

Taylor Marsh has a really good post on the ballistics involved. According to her calculations, Cheny would have had to hit Whittington from a lot closer than 30 yards to have scored with so many pellets. Now, in the news analysis of the latest develpment, that being Whittington's "heart episode" this morning, it appears he has pellet lodged in or near his heart. You don't get that from 30 yards. This also explains why the guy ended up in intensive care for an alleged "peppering" that barely broke the skin. One can only imagine the frantic on the scene medical procedures, attempting to keep Whittington out of the hospital so they could they could just cover it up altogether.

What thugs these people are, that they would endanger their own friend's lives for the "good of the party." How it happened and why raises speculation on Cheney's mental faculties of course. Maybe he was drunk, but considering his health history, which is closely guarded state secret, it could be as simple as the drugs he takes for his various conditions, impair him and maybe he shouldn't be allowed to use a gun.

Joe Gandelman raises a more interesting question though. Is this a prelude to his resignation? With the sword of Fitzgerald's Plame investigation hanging over his head, "health reasons" could be a graceful way to exit and allow Bush to appoint his chosen successor for 08 right now?

2 Comments:

Hmm Gracefull exit would be a bad scenario for Dems. If Bush got a good replacement, that person might be a contender for 08...Naw.. lol they would screw that up too. I think Cheney was drunk, and that they had to get the other witnesses off the ranch. It's not good having illegal aliens who act as hunting caddies hanging about.

I just read somewhere today that Cheney had some little ambassador woman in tow on this trip that he didn't want Lynne to find out about but I still think they delayed announcing it because they were hoping the guy wasn't that hurt and they could just cover it up privately.